The Case for a New Statutory Regime Addressing Revenge Porn in India: Exploring the Disputed Terrain From a Feminist Perspective

Abstract

The recent rise of online feminist activism, including the #MeToo Movement has been a catalyst for driving attention globally to issues concerning women and their everyday experiences of violence and harassment in the virtual world. However, in a developing country like India, the severity of a crime like non-consensual pornography was brought into public gaze only after a path breaking decision by a District Court in West Bengal in a ‘revenge porn’ case, namely, State of West Bengal v. Animesh Boxi ( hereinafter referred to as ‘Boxi’). The NCRB 2017 data shows that almost 6.7% of cyber-crime cases registered were for the motive of sexual exploitation. While men have often been victims of non- consensual pornography through unauthorized sharing of explicit pictures of themselves, revenge porn predominately impacts women. Not only are women more likely to be victims of revenge porn, but the effects are also far greater on women due to socially constructed belief that women who are victims of sexual assault must have provoked the incident. Furthermore, the victims’ sexual autonomy is criticised since it is believed that women should not have sexual impulses but the viewers and even the general public, who witness the crime, are reluctant to accept that an image might be shared with a partner voluntarily but not for public dissemination. Women are expected to take responsibility for their lawful personal choices rather than placing responsibility on the perpetrator of their inexcusable action. This form of non-consensual pornography not only institutionalises male supremacy but also sends a message that the survivor deserved the consequences while the perpetrator rightfully disseminated the intimate media, thus further promoting objectification of the female body. The fact that Boxi brings with it the first conviction in India, throws light upon the larger picture of how survivors who do not fit ‘ideal victim’ stereotypes are never brought to justice. The Hon’ble Court has vehemently termed this gender-based violence as ‘virtual rape’ highlighting the fact that it somewhere has a connection with the socially constructed expectation of gender. The lack of scholarship in this particular area resonates the struggle faced in recognising domestic violence in India and subsequently bringing about a specific legislation. Not only have allegations of revenge porn been dismissed like domestic violence, but revenge porn is often a form of domestic violence, rather intimate partner violence, in and of itself, with abusive partners threatening to expose explicit pictures of their significant other as a form of control over them. Drawing on the example of Boxi, the author makes an attempt to offer a fresh perspective on the efficacy of the existing legal regime by putting forth feminist legal arguments and exploring the possibility of situating such an act within the scope of civil remedies and criminal prosecution available for copyright violation (considering the fact that most images clicked these days are ‘selfies’) and defamation, respectively. The paper is designed to challenge the underlying normativity that operates as a dominant thinking pertaining to an ‘ideal victim’ of intimate partner violence and examine the ‘rape-shield’ theory of evidence vis-a-vis ‘revenge porn’ since the Court has equated the offence to ‘virtual rape’. The author also makes an attempt to inquire how women and men live through the meaning of their experiences/ understanding of this issue by recording responses of 100 participants (between the age group of 15-40 years) vide a structured closed questionnaire in order to demonstrate that the hegemony of sexual stereo-typing not only resides in the legal but very much in the social as well. While various feminist advocates have been mooting for introducing a specific statute, the author offers a close appreciation of how it might not be the most plausible solution to curb the menace.